Warriors Orochi 2 Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Published: Jan 22, 2008

Warriors Orochi 2 Guide

The game is very lenient towards your officers' growth. It is -- naturally -- foolish for you to clear your campaigns (story modes) on Hard or Chaos difficulty before your officers are capable of defeating enemies on Easy and Normal. The higher difficulties are for your characters to earn more (and better) weapons once they are developed in stats and high in proficiency. Once you've cleared a faction's campaign, you can use those officers in Free mode, as well as use officers from other story modes in that campaign. Therefore, it is your first imperative to finish the story modes as quickly as possible.

Difficulty Differences

Easy: Enemies and allies do not do much damage to one another. Enemies will not be able to damage your officer, even if she or he is at the starting level. Weapons picked up at this difficulty have few powers attached to them, and tend to be very weak.

Normal: The normal difficulty setting. Officers starting at level 1 with the first level of weapon proficiency will find it tough going once the stage difficulty is increased to 3 stars; however, experienced officers with a moderately powerful weapon and 80% of their move set unlocked will not have too much challenge. Weapons retrieved at this difficulty have some powers attached to them, if they were found on stages with 4 or more stars.

Hard: The hard difficulty setting assumes your officer is over level 60 and has all his or her moves unlocked. Enemies will not take much damage even from third-rank weapons, unless the full +20 damage bonus has been applied. Allied officers will be slaughtered more quickly than on normal if battle conditions shift against you. Weapons retrieved at this difficulty will be fairly strong, especially if the stage's difficulty is at 3 or more stars. Fourth rank weapons (the best weapons) are occasionally earned (about 30% of the time) on three star stages on Hard; on four star stages, you will have more than a good chance for a good weapon.

Chaos: The hardest difficulty mode. Enemies will do much more damage to you and your allies. Friendly officers left alone on the battlefield will be slaughtered like sheep. All enemy officers tend to have Hyper-Armor™ which makes them resist flinching from being attacked. Previously "hyper" officers (enraged Lu Bu, Zhang Fei, Keiji Maeda, Orochi X, Himiko, etc.) will be unstoppable (like the super-hyper Kojiro Sasaki in Samurai Warriors 2). Weapons earned on this difficulty will often be the best rank, even on stages with passing challenge.

Weapon Fusion / Abilities List

Some games may want to call this "crafting" but that's too much work. Weapon fusion makes the only thing that matters in a Dynasty Warriors / Musou game awesome. Essentially, you are fusing the spirits of weapons into a super-weapon. Each time you fuse, a weapon's abilities combine and add to that of the parent weapon. Any ability slots are transferred over to the parent. Additionally, the parent weapon gets a +1 damage bonus (maximum of 20 points more) from the weapon being sacrificed.

Although you can create a very powerful weapon over time, there are natural limits on how far you can exploit this feature. Each weapon can only have 8 normal abilities and 3 "super" abilities. The damage bonus is capped at +20, so the weapon's base damage will still cap what you can do. Also, each "super" ability (described as weapon skills in the manual but we'll call them weapon talents in this guide) require special unlockable permissions to create -- in addition to a pre-stated number of weapon abilities.

Flame: A mundane ability that sets enemies on fire. Fire damages enemies over time, like poison. A handy ability to have but one that's not a definite must have. Note that hitting an enemy again while he is still on fire may occasionally extinguish the fire, due to the special effects of an officer's attacks.

Bolt: An elemental ability that plays like "Punch Buggy" -- an electrified enemy can shock another nearby enemy and knock them back, and who in turn, repeats the process. The routine isn't perpetual, as enemies are limited and the duration of the effect wears off after a while.

Slay: The elemental property of "death" which cuts severely into the enemy's lifebar. Handy against enemies, but not so much against enemy officers.

Flash: A property that does chip damage to blocking enemies, previously associated with Wind. Unless you are playing often on Hard and Chaos (and depending if your officer has a guard break), you may not require this power for anything except for special ability fusion.

Ice: The best elemental ability behaves exactly like Sub-Zero. By freezing an enemy in place, you can attack them without having them defend, counter-attack, or run away. Of all the elemental abilities, this ability should always be kept on your officers.

Absorb: This is a unique vampiric ability that drains an enemy's Musou meter to add to yours. Each hit by your weapon will add a tiny bit of musou to your currently active officer.

Drain: This is a unique vampiric ability that drains an enemy's life meter to add to yours. Each hit by your weapon will add a tiny bit of life to your currently active officer.

Might: This is a straight-forward ability that increases your weapon's damage. It is worth less than Rage, but it will stack with it when attacking enemy officers.

Brave: This ability is similar to Might, but works only against enemy officers. Against regular enemies, it will not do anything.

Rage: This ability is similar to Might, but works only when your officer's life is injured. The less life your character has, the more damage done (this can surpass the amount done by Might and Brave alone). It stacks with Might and Brave, so you may want this for Hard and Chaos missions.

Range: Increases the reach of your weapons. The light trail from your weapon is visibly extended by the time this ability is increased to its maximum.

Agility: Increases the attack speed of your officer when using that weapon. This is not a substitute for using a fast attacking officer if the need arises.

Multi: A difficult ability to grasp. When attacking, after-images of your officer are produced, which damage enemies in turn.

Air: Enemies damaged by a weapon with this power will take extra damage. Naturally, you want officers who have a very good Weak, Strong, Strong, Strong, .... combination (generally the Japanese officers) or the Chinese officers with an airborne capable Chain-2 combo (Weak, Weak, Strong, Strong, Strong, ....).

Special Abilities (Weapon Talents)

These are abilities that require you to unlock special permissions, then go around collecting weapons with specific abilities on them to forge a "weapon talent". Any weapon so sacrificed in this procedure is irretrievable, so make sure you sacrifice a weapon that you don't need. Note that only a weapon's abilities' scores are needed for this process.

It doesn't matter if your sacrificed weapon is really crappy or really powerful or even has any ability slots (although you need eight types of abilities for the most powerful weapon talents), so when you fuse new weapons, focus only on keeping the abilities you need for a weapon talent. You can fuse other attributes if you like, but that will only waste your hard earned money!

Evasion:Flash (1), Drain (1), Range (1), Rage (1), Malachite. Damage received is reduced (like an extra degree of defence). This skill is handy on all difficulties.

Stability:Ice (1), Absorb (1), Brave (1), Multi (1), Might (1), Sapphire, Pearl. Your officer will not be stunned or stopped when he does a charged (Strong) attack. Note that some power officers have this ability already with their special power ability (hyper-armor).

Highflier:Slay (1), Air (1), Multi (1), Agility (1), Might (1), Crystal, Amethyst. When your officer is performing a charged (strong) attack, he may interrupt it by jumping. This talent is similar to the skill of the Speed class officers.

Resolve:Bolt (1), Slay (1), Absorb (1), Multi (1), Agility (1), Rage (1), Ruby, Emerald. Officer does not flinch, stun, or stop for enemy projectiles. Basically, you can tank through a whole army of riflemen, but note that your officer still takes the damage to his lifebar.

Synergy:Ice (1), Air (1), Brave (1), Range (1), Multi (1), Agility (1), Moonstone, Onyx, Garnet, Aventurine. The support attack from inactive officers are usable even if that officer's musou gauge is only half full. See the game's tutorial for an explanation of support attack.